Retrospective: Thief The Dark Project Comments by John Walker
The artful dodger.
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Erm...ok. Sorry for that.
Thank you EG for reminding us how awesome this was. Not quite as intricate as Deus Ex, but a subtler, more focused game.It is a good thing that both are getting sequels :) If they manage to achieve even a measure of the greatness of the originals, I will be a happy little boy. |
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Springchicken
17/05/09 @ 08:22
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I've typed many things in response to internet-babble, but this is the first time I loudly exclaimed 'John Walker, you are a man after my own heart'.
Hope like hell the neighbours didn't hear. The carpets are a soft, luscious wonder surfaces. I'm reminded of their antithesis: the carelessly strewn glass in Splinter Cell. It's like creeping around on live firecrackers. When I design a stealth-action title, I'll have the main boss the other side of a gigantic keyboard not unlike one Tom Hanks stepped on in Big, his back turned to me, listening to a piano sonata. To get to him, you have to dance back and forth along the keys in time so he doesn't hear you, back, and forth, back, and fo- CHOPSTICKS!
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most recently on 17/05/09 @ 09:25
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Still waiting for a sneak'em up to match Thief 1 or 2. Or even come close...
Thief 3 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory tried but they're not quite at the same level as the first two Thief games. I would also add Butcher Bay to the list of games taking inspiration from Thief. The usage of light and silence had a very similar feel.
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most recently on 17/05/09 @ 09:58
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Thunderbolt!
17/05/09 @ 09:02
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I must admit I was very impressed with this game at the time however I lacked the patience to play it properly.
It also came out in time when there was a stealth craze games like Hitman, Splinter Cell, MGS to name a few but stood head above such games IMO. Possibly the new Assassins Creed can take on matle? |
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squarejawhero
17/05/09 @ 09:09
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Nope, the new Assassins Creed can't take on the mantle unless they make it infinitely sneakier.
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ParanoidZombie
17/05/09 @ 09:26
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I only played thief3, which makes me a complete n00b I guess, but it was a fantastic experience. Best stealth game I ever played, the plot and level design are absolutely stellar. Anxiously waiting for thief4, hope it makes it way to X360/PS3. BUT I have to say that IMO Hitman 4 was also a very very good and smart stealth game.
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IronCladChicken
17/05/09 @ 09:34
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@Thunderbolt!
Dude Thief was released in 1998 - Hitman didnt come out until 2000, Splinter Cell was 2002 & MGS was doing a completly different thing at the time. I remember reading previews & reviews for Thief when people thought this was going to be a novelty FPS subset rather than a mini-genre in itself. |
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MrWonderstuff
17/05/09 @ 09:46
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Ah, a game from which I viewed my neighbourd at night in a very different way.
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This retrospective oozes with emotions.
I like thieving games. One of my favourite gaming experiences was with Ultima VIII Pagan, in the city of Tenebrae. I spent hours trying to get into the various buildings, looting the chests. And there was much to be found. Hidden conspiracies written in scrolls, secret levers and forgotten rooms. Stuff for hours, if you were willing to look for it. |
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This is one of the few games I regret missing. I played the demo but back then my childish brain could only handle CS and I gave it a miss. It would take SS2 and DX to wake me up to intelligent first person gaming.
Great overview anyway, my exprience is only with Deadly Shadows which doesn't seem to exemplify the ground noise as much but I do remember the technology from the first one. |
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TheHammerite
17/05/09 @ 12:30
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Glad to see this masterpiece get the recognition it deserves. I personally consider it better than Thief 2, but it would seem im in the minority on that one.
I have a few points i'd like to make Zombies are integral to the Thief series, I cannot understand why people dislike their inclusion so much. Thief DS was enjoyable but the levels need to be bigger next time, with NO gaps to break up the level. Garrett should remain as the main character in Thief 4 The Cradle is without doubt the scariest level ever made, although return to the cathedral runs it close. Thief 4 should include the following, Mechanist robots, Hammer haunts, and general hauntings. There I said it
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most recently on 17/05/09 @ 14:15
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When I design a stealth-action title, I'll have the main boss the other side of a gigantic keyboard not unlike one Tom Hanks stepped on in Big, his back turned to me, listening to a piano sonata. To get to him, you have to dance back and forth along the keys in time so he doesn't hear you, back, and forth, back, and fo- CHOPSTICKS!
I would SO play this ;) |
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The thief series are without doubt one of the best games I have ever played and are in my top 10 games.The news that thief 4 is being worked on is very good and hopefully they will treat the game with the respect it deserves.
The fan made missions for thief are also very good as well and are being made even to this day. http://www.thief-thecircle.com |
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Paulanator
17/05/09 @ 15:42
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Does anyone know if Thief 3 is backwards compatible with the 360?
Reading this has got me itching to play a Thief game again, but the only one I've still got is Thief 3 on the Xbox. |
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Paulanator
17/05/09 @ 15:47
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I've just checked and it is on the backwards compatibility list on Xbox.com. I may give it a go later to see how well it runs.
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Shame I never played this. I bought it, played it for 10 minutes and had a fit lol. Pretty scarey at the time. I certainly wouldn't advise people to play this game in a darkened room, as I've heard other people having problems with this particular game for some reason.
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most recently on 17/05/09 @ 18:22
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FenderMaster
17/05/09 @ 18:23
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never played these games, but i'm definitely intrigued...
I'm sur it's not the same, but play a no alerts/no kills run through of MGS4 and I think you'll be pleasently surprised! it's the only way to play the game imo! of course you've still got horrible on rails sections which trample all ove the stealth... |
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@ Paulanato, last time I tried Thief 3 on the 360 the game ran, but anything that was rendered using a sprite had z-order problems, for example, you could see the flames of every torch in the level through all walls.
Don`t know if the emulation has been fixed since then though.
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most recently on 17/05/09 @ 19:34
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i tired to install it once without success, think now i ll give it an other chance. 3d graphics of the time didnt aged well though...
but i definitely loved thief 3, wonderful story, and everything the reviewer described about dark project matched what i experienced while playing t3. and yes , the "cradle" level is unique, scared me like i didn't know it was possible to scare me in a game, it was so tense that i stopped playing at time to cool my nerves. the only game to shine even in the complete darkness. i remember once sneaking in some shadowy place, then suddenly a hamerite came through a dimly lit door, stopped and started to sing a prayer. that was a moment! |
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Snidesworth
17/05/09 @ 20:24
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I love the Thief series unconditionally, but I know more than a few people who were put off the first one by the undead and burricks. I wasn't one of them, but it put many people off the game before they really got into it.
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LewisResolution
17/05/09 @ 21:54
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It's a terrible shame of mine that I am ferociously bad at Thief games, and thus not really a fan, even though I can appreciate they're clearly very good.
Walker may have slightly inspired me to try them out again. I fear my patience is shot, though. They really are 95% standing still. |
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Ergates_Antius
17/05/09 @ 23:30
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The zombies were fine, stop moaning. They just required you do develop new tactics. It's funny how some people complain about the undead, but that they feature heavily in what most people consider to be the best Thief levels (Return to the Cathedral and The Cradle) - tend's to suggest they're not that bad...
The spiders on the other hand can just fuck right off. (though mainly because I'm afraid of them...) I'll finish with a "Joinusjoinusjoinusjoinusjoinus..." |
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Tommyknocker
17/05/09 @ 23:40
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Excellent article, and I agree with all points, though Thief 2 was my first Thief experience (and I do think it's superior). I await Thief 4 with baited breath...
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If anyone is planning on playing Thief again, I seem to remember a mod which let you use the higher-res Thief 2 textures in Thief 1 which is well worth it.
Thief was GOTY for me when it came out, and I seem to remember playing very little else. I could quite happily watch guard patrols all night. If you really want to go hardcore, play at "Lytha" difficulty level where you can do no damage and have to get 100% loot: http://www.lytha.com/thief/lythaway/inde... |
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Think you might be able to download it from EB Games
http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDe... |
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dominalien
18/05/09 @ 08:54
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I loved the zombies! Very creepy. My favourite level must be the Bonehoard from T1.
I never played T3, though. Just got it, following this article, hope it works on Linux somehow. If not, I'll have to dig out that old Win2K install disc ;-) |
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Eugh zombies! i got so scared on the last level in the cathedral that i never finished it... or maybe i did. i can't remember. anyway it's an amazing game. Anyone remember that bit in one of the levels where there was a miniature town and when you went through a water grate you ended up in a giant sink in a giant room with a huge sofa, dog bowl and other massive things. possibly the only moment in a game where i've properly been wowed.
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Caspar_Esq.
18/05/09 @ 10:35
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Best game ever made IMO.
Never will we see level design like this again! /weeps |
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Here's hoping for a return to form for Thief 4. 1 & 2 were magical - 3 was good.
The number of times I played through Bafford's Manor on Thief 1... loved it. Also got into the editing side, using the highly unstable but great DromED. There was a chap who made an excellent Blackadder-themed level that's worth checking out. Thief "got" me in a way a lot of games don't. Sure, I enjoy them, but Thief was the one that truly made me feel like I'd crossed over from gamer to participant. Amazing. |
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frycrayola
18/05/09 @ 12:00
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Thief 3 is the only one I played, and I loved it. The Cradle was brilliant, naturally, but the rest was a damn fine game. Yet, the restrictively small levels did make things more linear than they needed to be.
I've got The Metal Age sitting at home. Unfortunately, it's summer. I can't play dark stealth games in the summer! |
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Thief "got" me in a way a lot of games don't. Sure, I enjoy them, but Thief was the one that truly made me feel like I'd crossed over from gamer to participant.
I agree with that - it was just incredibly immersive. I wasn't playing a game anymore, I was there, hiding in the shadows. I can count the number of games where that happened on one hand. Thief 1+2, System Shock, Half-Life 1, Stalker, from the top of my head. |
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A game that could make you the gamer want to sit perfectly still and hold your breathe so as not to alert the guard. That gave you that heart-pounding moment of panic when entering a brightly lit room and seeing the door opposite start to open. A game where you would voluntarily sit in a shadow in a corner motionless for 5 minutes just to watch the guard patrol patterns, and where you would be try to be aware of everything in the area not just what's in front of you, but in every direction.
How many of those are made today? |
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